Focusfeatures: Benedict Cumberbatch | ACTOR OF THE YEAR
His poise, stature and very proper voice give Benedict Cumberbatch an aristocratic quality that makes him a natural for costume dramas, and it’s no surprise that he made his first major impact on the big screen in a period piece, playing William Pitt the Younger in AMAZING GRACE, the 2006 biopic of British abolitionist William Wilberforce. The same year he appeared opposite James McAvoy in STARTER FOR 10 (based on a novel by One Day’s David Nicholls), and in 2007 reteamed with McAvoy on ATONEMENT. More period roles arrived, with Cumberbatch playing William Carey, a courtier of Henry VIII in THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (2008), and Charles Darwin’s friend Joseph Hooker in CREATION (2009). With a bit TV show and a lead in the TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, it’s no wonder thatBritish GQ crowned him “Actor of the Year,” noting these achievements, as well as his upcoming turn in Steven Spielberg’s WARHORSE and in Peter Jackson’s THE HOBBITT, are “all proof (whatever your powers of deduction) that Cumberbatch’s huge star is surely rising.”